The war in Vietnam 1964 to 1975

1
The war in Vietnam1964 to 1975

• Part one
• The story of the war and how it was fought

2
Aims of the lesson

• By the end of the lesson you should
• Understand the nature of the war in Vietnam
• Put the events of the war into chronological
  order
• Evaluate the effectiveness of American tactics to
  counter guerrilla warfare and effect of the war
  on public opinion back home

3
1964 to 1965

• 1964 The Gulf of Tonkin incident
• Operation Rolling Thunder a series of bombing
  raids on North Vietnam
• North Vietnam increases the number of raids into
  the south in retaliation

4
1966 to 1967

• The height of American involvement 250 000
  troops in combat
• US was winning the war of attrition but had
  problems counting the guerrilla tactics of the
  Vietcong
• The Communists needed a success or face eventual
  defeat

5
Guerrilla warfare

• The Communists used guerrilla tactics to fight
  the Americans
• Punji traps used to trap American soldiers
• Aimed to get the people of South Vietnam onto
  their side and to demoralise the American soldiers

6
American ways to counter this

• Napalm Americans dropped this jelly onto jungle
  areas in order to strip the Vietcong of cover
• Worked but resulted in burns to civilians
• Tried to block Communist supply routes through
  Laos and Cambodia - illegal

7
The effects of Napalm
8
The Tet offensive 1968

• By 1968 the Communists were desperate they
  needed a success or faced defeat
• In the summer they launched an offensive all over
  South Vietnam it was a failure but on TV it
  looked like a success
• The USA faced an uphill battle after this point

9
The My Lai massacre 1968

• March 16th 1968 US troops led by Lieutenant
  William Calley marched into the town of My Lai
• They panicked and ended up massacring between 347
  and 504 men, women and children
• Led to the American Army being seen as bullies in
  the eyes of the world

10
Pictures of My Lai
11
Pictures of My Lai
12
1969 and 1970

• 1968 LBJ did not stand for re-election. Richard
  Nixon won
• Announced a gradual withdrawal of US troops from
  Vietnam
• Vietnamisation
• At the same time increased the bombing of Vietnam

13
1971 and 1972 the beginning of the end

• 1971 - South Vietnam becomes a democracy Thieu
  is elected president
• North Vietnam officially declares war on the
  south
• This results in the USA bombing Hanoi heavy
  civilian casualties
• Hanoi Jane

14
1973 to 1974 - distractions

• In 1973 a ceasefire was agreed but did not last
  and the war resumed later in the year
• In 1974 the USA lost interest in the was as she
  got distracted by the Watergate scandal
• Communists captured large areas of South Vietnam

15
1975 The end

• The last US troops pulled out of Vietnam in the
  summer of 1975
• US embassy in Saigon was evacuated
• Saigon fell to the Communists and the country was
  reunited, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City